"I'd start a revolution if I could get up in the morning." ~Aimee Allen

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I was surprised that a few of my friends who have expressed bitterness over recent DC ventures had such positive things to say about the new show, Arrow, based on DC’s comic, Green Arrow. I trust their judgement (or at least, I used to :P) so I have checked it out.

I managed about four episodes. No wait, make that three and a half because I gave up last night and my husband thanked me profusely for not torturing him any further. I must give him credit for biting his tongue for that long.

Rich people problems. That’s what this show is. A “drama” about rich people whining and Ollie skilfully shooting arrows at things and occasionally realizing that checking people off of his dad’s “Bad Rich People List” results in meeting nice middle class people who are actually human beings. I put “drama” in quotes because it tries and fails to bring it. Instead, we get amateur attempts at tension and character building, all acted poorly. The plots involving evil businessmen doing evil things are so contrived that I am forced to use the word “lame” to describe them as I roll my eyes.

My last attempt with this show was the Huntress episodes. Surely they couldn’t make her boring! Wrong. After more rich people problems (oh noez! Daddy cut off my credit card and now I have to wooooork!) and a childish flounce by Helena over Ollie’s ex-girlfriend (I told you I didn’t want to be hurt again! I saw how you looked at her!), followed by a soppy visit to grave sites (I slept with this girl and got her killed. I haz a regretful sads!), I decided enough was enough. I’m supposed to believe this wooden Ollie could make Helena see the error of her revenge killing ways with empathy and compassion and sex and plaintive whining. Oh Batman, if only you’d realized it was this easy to get Huntress to understand the rules!

I admit that I don’t know much about the original Green Arrow and his history with DC, but it feels like this show is not doing him any justice.

On the plus side, though, because this show is so bad, I am now compelled to actually read the DC stories to find out about the good — which seems to happen a lot with DC characters that end up on screen…. Interesting marketing strategy there, DC. In fairness, I really shouldn’t be expecting more from the CW network, but I do expect better from DC. Or at least, I used to…